One former Newcastle United midfielder has now revealed that his biggest regret was not leaving the club earlier than he did to pursue his career elsewhere.
Matty Longstaff was tipped to have a very bright future after he made his mark in the Premier League with a brilliant goal against Manchester United to earn Newcastle a big three points in 2019.
Four years later and Longstaff has now opened up in an interview with Newcastle World where he discussed what went wrong with his career in the North East.
Longstaff says Bruce told him to stay at Newcastle
After what was a breakthrough season of sorts for Longstaff, the midfielder really needed to be playing regular football if he was going to develop his game as a young footballer alongside his brother Sean, but that didn’t really happen.
Steve Bruce had suggested at the time that the North Shields-born midfielder should stay at the club instead of looking for a move elsewhere as he promised he would get some game time in the team, but that never panned out.
Instead, Longstaff wasted his time either sat on the bench or out injured until eventually getting a loan move to Aberdeen in 2021, however he was struggling with injuries and his form had taken a huge downward turn, so he was recalled early.
Longstaff spent some time at Mansfield where he did quite well, scoring six in 16 games, as well as with Colchester United, but injuries would come back to haunt him and he was never able to kick on from the great start he had at St James’ Park.
In his interview, Longstaff said: “It’s tough to live with regret and yes, if I knew how things would pan out, I am not sure I would have stayed at the club. Newcastle are my boyhood club, I grew up supporting them and I had a manager telling me to stay because I was going to play games for him.
“You get told that and you’re never going to leave the club because your heart is always with Newcastle. It felt the right decision but obviously looking back it’s hasn’t been. What has happened in the past has been great but I want to go on and do something with my career now.”
Longstaff is still involved with the club
Longstaff suffered a big injury to his anterior cruciate ligament last December which ended his spell with Colchester early and he is still recovering from it now.
The club have allowed their academy product to stay on at the club to focus on his recovery despite his contract expiring in the summer with no chance of a renewal.
Longstaff is still involved with the club
Longstaff suffered a big injury to his anterior cruciate ligament last December which ended his spell with Colchester early and he is still recovering from it now.
The club have allowed their academy product to stay on at the club to focus on his recovery despite his contract expiring in the summer with no chance of a renewal.
Longstaff was clearly determined to make things work out for him at Newcastle, his boyhood club, but things weren’t entirely in his control and he was unlucky to have rose through the team when he did.
It may have been a different story had he graduated after the takeover when there was a greater emphasis on developing academy talent, but we’ll never truly know.
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